This week we will be mailing a check to the people in Nairobi, Kenya so they can begin work on all of the power projects that they’re hoping to complete at the Joska School for Jr. High age kids.  After some significant final donations we not only passed our $10,000 goal but we nearly reached the $25,000 total needed for the entire project!  This week we will be sending a check for…

just over $23,000!

It’s amazing how God works!  Thanks to everyone who allowed God to use them and helped make this possible this summer.  (If you have any final donations please let us know ASAP so we can include them with the check we send at the end of the week.)  In case it is helpful, you can now see an updated Just Add Power Recap video that features the new total.

If you were a part of our Just Add Power project this summer, don’t miss this recap including everything from our kickoff overnighter & visiting Africa to the Garage Sale & Dinner.

What an incredible night we had last night!  We finished out an amazing summer of Just Add Power with our Dinner & Auction and God really showed up.  Going into the night it had already already been an amazing summer.  We were already past our goal of $10,000.  We had over $11,000 by yesterday afternoon so I couldn’t wait to see what happened at our Dinner/Auction.

Going into the weekend we weren’t sure what to expect.  We had only given out 80+ tickets but knew God still wanted to do something big so we went ahead and planned for 200 people.  Once again, I think we underestimated what God can do.  By the end of the morning on Sunday we’d given out all of our 250 tickets and heard a few additional RSVPs on top of that.  With a little last minute scrambling by some great volunteers we cooked some more food, setup some extra chairs and watched the place fill up.

Throughout the night we had some fun together, watched some videos (which we’ll post some of here once they are updated with pics from last night) and heard some cool testimonies from our Jr. High Students.  At the end of the night, once all of our auction items had been purchased and offerings had been given, our total reached just over $17,850!

We’ll be sending the money to Kenya soon but if anyone has any final donations you can turn them into the church office (just make sure Just Add Power is in the memo).  As of right now, we’ve almost reached the $25,000 that they need to not only buy the generator (our original goal of $10,000) but fully outfit their facilities with lights & electricity and also to take advantage of solar power.

It is awesome to be a part of the body of Christ.  When we trust God and work together, amazing things can happen!

Our Just Add Power Dinner & Silent Auction is coming up THIS SUNDAY!  If you don’t already have your free tickets, pick them up in the concourse this Sunday or  email us with how many will be attending and we’ll make sure we’ve got a spot for you at the dinner.  The dinner begins in Centennial Hall at 6PM but bidding on the Silent Auction opens at 5:30PM.  As you can see from the list below we’ve got some pretty great items so you won’t want to miss out.  Several of the dinners/parties are for multiple people so you might even consider getting together with a group of friends, several other couples or even your small group to bid on an item.

If you aren’t able to attend the Dinner but would like to make a donation or bid on an item, visit the table in the concourse on Sunday morning and we can help.

On August 30, at 5:30PM the our students are hosting a Dinner/Silent Auction to raise money for Just Add Power.  This will be our final Just Add Power event and we need it to go great to reach our goal of $10,000. We’re especially hoping the auction will be a big success.  That is where you come in.

If you have a new item (examples – gift basket, gift card, sports memorabilia, decorative item, etc.) or service that you’d be willing to donate, we’d love to include it in our silent auction.  We’re trying to collect everything by Sunday, August 23rd so we can get everything prepared during the following week.

If you’ve got an item, service, etc that you’d like to donate please contact Dawn Oettel to let her know and include a description of what you’re planning to give.  Thanks in advance for helping make this a great wrap up to an incredible summer project!

As we wrap up the month of July we’re just a few dollar short of $8,000.  Keep it up guys and we’ll hit our goal of $10,000 before the end of the summer!

There are several ways you can help us reach our goal coming up in the next few weeks:

• Consider donating an item or service to our silent auction to be held in conjunction with the dinner on August 30th.
• Bring your family to one of our remaining fundraiser nights and to the dinner on the 30th.
• Encourage the Jr. Highers you see to keep it up and find creative ways to raise money on their own.
• Make a donation yourself and pray for our efforts to provide power to this school in Kenya.

After our incredible weekend and the terrific garage sale, our new total…

We had an AMAZING day today at our Just Add Power Garage Sale. We had hundreds of visitors come through our doors to buy everything from full size basketball hoops & giant entertainment centers to antique playing cards & lots of baked goods.

There was such buzz about the sale that we had people lining up just after 7am and we had lots of traffic throughout the day. Thanks to so many great people who brought In donations we had the gym and cafeteria completely full of terrific stuff. None of it would have been possible though without Melissa Simpson (she coordinated he entire thing) and our incredible group of volunteers, some of whom worked up to 20 hours in the last two days alone.

In the end we managed to bring in $5,500 just today and we sent tons and tons of donations over to the Salvation Army. That brings our summer total close to $7,800. With a month left to go and our dinner/auction still coming up I am hopeful that we will not only reach our goal but that God will totally blow us away in the process. We serve an awesome God!

Checkout a few pictures and also this video of our day.

We are looking for the help of some boys, their brothers and or/their dads (really anyone strong).  Kevin Hughs is leading a team of guys both Wednesday and Thursday from 6-8PM.  They’re taking pick up trucks around town to pick up large items that people want to donate to our sale.

Even if you don’t have a truck that is ok.  We’re mainly just looking for strong arms.  If you’re willing to help for a while, give Kevin a call on his cell at 306-5567.